Wärtsilä’s Aquarius UV BWM system is now certified for Zone 1 hazardous area operation in marine and offshore installations

The verification was handled through Dekra, a Notified Body in Germany and a provider of auditing and certification services, specialising in the fields of safety, environment and health. The Aquarius UV BWM system range is now EX certified for Zone 1 hazardous area operation in marine and offshore installations.

Dr Joe Thomas, director, Wärtsilä Ballast Water Management Systems, said: “This is yet another important step towards making the Wärtsilä BWM system range available for the full range of marine and offshore applications. We have taken the position that it is not enough to have merely the electrical parts certified, which is the case with many other systems. As a result, owners and operators can have the peace of mind in knowing that the entire Wärtsilä system module is explosion-proof when installed inside a hazardous area.”

Ratification of the IMO’s Ballast Water Convention, which will require the owners of up to 40,000 vessels worldwide to install a BWM system, is widely anticipated. As a consequence, ship owners will need to evaluate, as a matter of some urgency, the ballast water treatment technology best suited to both their existing ships and future newbuilds.

The system comprises a modular BWM system utilising a two-stage approach involving filtration and medium pressure UV disinfection technology. The Aquarius UV BWM system completed land-based testing in 2011 at the NIOZ test facility in the Netherlands. Ship-based trials were completed on a Dutch-flagged 2,000 DWT chemical tanker, and were carried out by the independent consultants, GoConsult, and witnessed by Lloyds Register. The trials involved testing in both salt and fresh water environments to demonstrate compliance over a wider range of operating conditions. The results consistently met or exceeded the IMO D2 discharge standard.

The Wärtsilä Aquarius UV BWM system received IMO Type Approval in December 2012 and US Coastguard AMS acceptance in October 2013.